The research shows men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive.

Researchers who carried out the study, published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, think the reason may be that men use up so much of their brain function or 'cognitive resources' trying to impress beautiful women, they have little left for other tasks.

The findings have implications for the performance of men who flirt with women in the workplace, or even exam results in mixed-sex schools.

Women, however, were not affected by chatting to a handsome man.

This may be simply because men are programmed by evolution to think more about mating opportunities.

Psychologists at Radboud University in The Netherlands carried out the study after one of them was so struck on impressing an attractive woman he had never met before, that he could not remember his address when she asked him where he lived.

Researchers said it was as if he was so keen to make an impression he 'temporarily absorbed most of his cognitive resources.'

To see if other men were affected in the same way, they recruited 40 male heterosexual students.

Each one performed a standard memory test where they had to observe a stream of letters and say, as fast as possible, if each one was the same as the one before last.

The volunteers then spent seven minutes chatting to male or female members of the research team before repeating the test.

The results showed men were slower and less accurate after trying to impress the women. The more they fancied them, the worse their score.

But when the task was repeated with a group of female volunteers, they did not get the same results. Memory scores stayed the same, whether they had chatted to a man or a woman.

In a report on their findings the researchers said: 'We conclude men's cognitive functioning may temporarily decline after an interaction with an attractive woman.'

Psychologist Dr George Fieldman, a member of the British Psychological Society, said the findings reflect the fact that men are programmed to think about ways to pass on their genes.

'When a man meets a pretty woman, he is what we call 'reproductively focused'.

'But a woman also looks for signs of other attributes, such as wealth, youth and kindness. Just the look of the man would be unlikely to have the same effect.'

该项研究显示，对男性大脑功能进行测试时，在公司里与漂亮女性说话，即使只说了几分钟的男性，表现得不如和没有吸引力的人说话的男性。

执行该项研究的研究人员解释说原因或许是男性耗尽了过多的大脑能量或"认知资源"来试图给漂亮女性留下好印象，这样他们分配给其他任务的大脑能量就相对少了。该项研究发行在"实验与社会心理学"杂志上。

这项发现对公司里与女性调情的男性的表现抑或是男女混班的学校里的考试结果有所启示。

对女性而言，与一位英俊的男性交谈却并不受影响。

这也许仅仅是因为男性的演化程序偏向更多的思考交配机会。

这项研究是由荷兰拉德伯德大学的心理学家发起的。事由其中一位心理学家急于给一位从未谋过面的漂亮女士留下好印象，以至于当那位女士问他住在哪儿时，他都想不起来了。

研究人员称这就好像他强烈想要留下好印象，暂时将自己大多数的认知资源都集中起来了。

为了看其他男性是否会同样被影响，研究人员招募了40名男性异性恋学生。

每一个人进行一项标准记忆测试，即让他们观察一行字母，并让他们尽快的说出来，检查是否每个都一样。

然后在重复测试开始前，志愿者有7分钟时间与研究组的男性或女成员交谈。

结果显示，在试图给女性留下印象后，男性表现得更慢且精确度也降低。女性越漂亮，男性表现得就越差。

但是，当对女性志愿者进行重复测试时，结果与男性却不一样。无论与男性或女性交谈，她们的记忆分数与之前的测试都一样。

在一份研究发现报告中，研究人员称"我们推断男性的认知功能在和一位迷人的女性交谈后，可能会暂时降低。"

英国心理学协会的心理学家乔治。菲尔斯德博士称该发现反映了一个事实即男性的思维程序偏向传递基因。

"当一位男性遇见一位漂亮的女性，他就会像我们所称之为的'繁殖聚焦'"

"但对女性而言，还会看其他方面，诸如财富、年轻与友善。仅男性外貌不太能影响女性。"